40. In the last decade there has been a significant
decrease in coffee consumption. During this same
time, there has been increasing publicity about the
adverse long-term effects on health of the caffeine in
coffee. Therefore, the decrease in coffee consumption
must have been caused by consumers’ awareness of
the harmful effects of caffeine.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously calls into
question the explanation above?
(A) On average, people consume 30 percent less
coffee today than they did 10 years ago.
(B) Heavy coffee drinkers may have mild withdrawal
symptoms, such as headaches, for a day or so
after significantly decreasing their coffee
consumption.
(C) Sales of specialty types of coffee have held
steady as sales of regular brands have declined.
(D) The consumption of fruit juices and caffeine-free
herbal teas has increased over the past decade.
(E) Coffee prices increased steadily in the past
decade because of unusually severe frosts in
coffee-growing nations.
答案是E这个可以理解，可是我觉得B选项也对。
对于B选项的理解是：heavy coffee drinker 如果戒掉咖啡，就会出现不适反应，比如头疼之类的。 这就说明他们得靠咖啡来保持头不疼。 所以即使有咖啡影响健康这种说法，他们也不会因此而改变喝咖啡的习惯。所以削弱了咖啡减少是因为影响健康这个说法。
大家怎么理解的，求解释！作者: sayysong 时间: 2011-3-11 22:15
Heavy drinkers明显减少咖啡消费后，将会导致此症状，暗示了那些heavy drinkers不能大量减少咖啡消费。而事实上，咖啡的消费数量是大幅减少了，那就说明是non-heavy drinkers大量减少甚至停止咖啡的消费了，但题目中并未提及这一群体减少的原因。故个人认为B无法削弱题目结论——咖啡消费减少时来源于意识增强。作者: teddyabc 时间: 2011-3-12 07:05
